At East, student-athletes face a challenge that goes beyond the court or field: balancing sports with the reality of missing valuable class time. Having early dismissals for away games, many athletes find themselves out of school for one or two afternoon periods multiple times per week. Missing this class time while other classmates are learning puts even more stress on the athlete, as they have to catch up on the work and stay up later trying to understand the material, all the while taking time to practice and play their sport, leaving less time to study. While sports are an important part of kids’ lives, a question arises: Are student-athletes missing too much school for their games?

Leaving class early can make it difficult to stay on top of schoolwork, quizzes, and class discussions. Even when teachers post work in the classroom, it’s very different from being in class and being taught the material. Some students are staying up late trying to learn the lesson from the class they missed, and are sleeping very little, which hurts their performance in the field and in the classroom.

“It’s hard to keep up when you’re missing lessons that other students are there for,” said Colt Mondel (‘29), an athlete on the East football team. “I have to catch up on homework late at night after getting home from games.”

While sports teach valuable lessons, the time commitment can cause grades to drop and lead to less sleep. Some students believe that starting games later could reduce early dismissals.

“If games started later, we’d get to stay for our classes,” said Mondel.

Others argue that if games started later, players would be out too late, making it harder to get enough sleep and finish homework. Late nights can also make it harder to focus in class and affect academic and athletic performance.

“I don’t want to be doing homework past midnight just because we got home later,” said Kyle Mogell (‘29), an athlete on the East hockey team.

Despite the challenges, East’s student-athletes show commitment in both their sports and studies. Balancing practices, games, and homework is hard, but the experience of being a student-athlete teaches responsibility, time management, and perseverance. While there is no simple solution to early dismissals for games, finding a balance is important, something East’s athletes put much effort into in order to maintain academic and athletic success.